An official accusation alleging that Zambia’s head coach Bruce Mwape sexually assaulted a player at the Women’s World Cup is being looked into by Fifa.
Mwape is accused of touching one of his players’ chests while they were in New Zealand for a training session on July 29.
“A complaint has been received,” a Fifa representative stated.
However, the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) claimed that “it has not received any such complaint” and that it is a “surprise”.
The alleged incident is reported to have occurred at a training session two days prior to their final group encounter against Costa Rica, in which Zambia won 3-1 to earn their first World Cup victory.
“Fifa takes any allegation of misconduct extremely seriously and has a clear process in place for anyone in football who wants to report an incident,” said the Fifa’s representative.
“All the training sessions for the Copper Queens [Zambia] were filmed by the FAZ media team and offers no such footage,” the FAZ said.
“Additionally, a Fifa film crew attached to the Zambian team at the World Cup was present at all training sessions.
“We, however, wish to reassure the public that FAZ maintains the highest standards of integrity and transparency and always demands unwavering ethical conduct of the players and officials on and off the field of play.
“We therefore would not hesitate to take disciplinary measures and act on any misconduct once we are in receipt of an official complaint or when presented with evidence pertaining to an alleged incident.”
